Mutinous Labour MPs are poised to deploy the tactics that ousted Tony Blair against Keir Starmer.
A group of backbenchers could send an open letter urging the PM to set a timetable for his departure in the wake of local elections this week.
The move would emulate the coup staged by Gordon Brown’s allies in 2006, when a slew of ministerial aides – including Tom Watson – quit. Within 24 hours Sir Tony had bowed to the pressure.
The plotting has been stepped up as more polls showed Labour on track for apocalyptic results on Thursday. Insiders fear the party could lose more than a thousand council seats, as well as being trounced in Scotland and Wales Parliamentary contests.
Sir Keir has been desperately casting around for a way to survive the backlash from his own MPs – after barely clinging on through the Mandelson scandal.
The Government has scheduled the King’s Speech for next Tuesday in a bid to ‘reset’ his premiership. Loyalists have also been warning about the consequences of switching leaders – suggesting it could mean an early general election.
Mutinous Labour MPs are poised to deploy the tactics that ousted Tony Blair against Keir Starmer (pictured yesterday)
The plot would emulate the coup staged by Gordon Brown’s allies against Tony Blair in 2006
Housing Secretary Steve Reed was sent out to bat for the Government on the airwaves this morning, insisting he had not heard about the letter plot.
He cautioned the party against ‘doomscrolling’ through PMs.
‘I speak to a lot of my fellow MPs, of course I do all the time, but also council leaders, and they’re sick and tired of all of this psychodrama,’ he told Times Radio.
‘They want us to focus as a party on what we need to do to get our vote out this coming Thursday.
‘There are really important issues about who runs our councils, whether we can build the social housing that this country needs, whether we can improve the public services that people use.
‘The whole notion that we would copy the Conservatives and go doomscrolling through leaders in a way that means the Government is completely incapable of dealing with the things that matter to most of the British public is absolute nonsense, and I’m not going to engage in it, and most of our MPs would not engage in that either.’
According to the Times, several Cabinet ministers are aware of the plot, with one minister admitting there is ‘real anger’ in the Parliamentary party.
In the letter two decades ago the Brownites told Sir Tony that the ‘uncertainty over when you intend to leave office’ was ‘damaging the government and the party’.
Sir Keir has been propped up until now because none of his main rivals – Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting – are ready to strike.
However, if the elections drubbing is as bad as feared many believe a wave of anger will bring demands for change at the top into the open.
A new mega-poll of London has warned that Labour is now ‘under siege’ from all sides in the traditional stronghold.
More in Common found the party’s support has collapsed by 15 points since the general election, while the Greens have surged by 10 points.
While Labour is still in the lead across the city it is down to just 28 per cent support.
The Green Party is now breathing down Labour’s neck on 20 per cent, and is on course to win the highest vote share for the first time in a London borough.
Zack Polanski’s party is now the most popular in Hackney, leading by three points, and is within two points of Labour in Islington, Lambeth and Lewisham.
The Greens are also projected to come second to Labour in 16 boroughs, and come within five points of the governing party in five of them.
